Surrender or Die
by JaceyRae
Summary: An account of Zant's takeover of Hyrule with the missing piece: the tragic tale of the Hylian captain Isa.


Surrender or Die

A Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess/Kingdom Hearts II fan fiction

Princess Zelda leaned out the window of her room. She admired the beautiful dawn over the vast green fields of Hyrule, looking out over all the provinces as the wind played with her braids. From that room, she could see the glistening Lake Hylia, the thick Faron Woods, and the dusty sands of Kakariko Village.

For one single morning, she thought the kingdom looked so peaceful, nothing could possibly go wrong.

What an irony…the day she picked to have that thought was the day that the kingdom of Hyrule would suffer its greatest travesty.

She tread the halls softly, making her way to the throne room on the castle roof. She was interrupted midstep by Isa, the captain of the Hylian guard.

"Princess," Isa gasped, "I awoke with a horrible feeling…something is coming. Something dark and dangerous. A monster from the shadows."

Zelda's skin was chilled. Isa was especially attuned to sensing the darkness. When he got a vibe like that, he was almost never wrong.

"Don't be afraid, though," he assured the trembling princess. "Whatever it is…I will send it back to where it came from."

Isa ran his hands over the obnoxiously large silver claymore he always kept at his side.

Zelda gripped the hilt of her own sword, tucked into her sash.

* * *

"It looks like you were wrong, Isa," Zelda sighed. "Nothing has come—"

But then it breezed into the throne room with the grace of a thousand deadly dancers.

The shadow beasts infiltrated the throne room. The guards rushed them, but they were no match for the creatures. Before long, each person in the throne room was gripped by the throat in the claw of a shadow beast…except for two: Zelda and Isa, cowering by the throne.

Zelda sensed an impatience in Isa. "Stay your blade," she said. "I do not think you can defeat them all."

"I will take that risk for you, Princess," Isa growled loyally. "But there is no need…yet. These are only the limbs of a great menace…the way to defeat a monster is to cut off the head."

That "head" came striding in at that moment. Zant, the Usurper King of Twilight, approached the throne with delicacy and intimidation.

"Surrender or die," he growled, his voice metallically distorted by the iron mask he wore. "A choice for all of Hyrule…"

"NEVER!" Isa drew his claymore and rushed Zant.

Zant snapped his fingers. Six shadow beasts leapt upon Isa at once.

Zelda gasped, and nearly burst into tears.

Isa swung his claymore at each shadow beast. His facial expression was confident, as though he had the upper hand, but he clearly was failing as the shadow beasts conglomerated into a dogpile on top of him…

Then they backed off. Isa was gone. Only…were there now SEVEN shadow beasts where Zelda swore there had been six before?

"Well, Princess?" Zant eyed her…or at least she thought he was eyeing her; it was hard to tell through the mask.

Zelda gulped. She knew that Isa would not want her to surrender. She drew her sword in anger.

Yet…if she did not surrender, she would have to watch the rest of her people go down the same way Ïas had…and she could not endure that.

The sword clattered to the ground.

"Good choice," said Zant.

* * *

A man wandered outside the castle, forlorn and homeless. Where had he come from? Who was he?

Had he only known that he was the Nobody of the once valiant Isa…

He remembered that the inhabitant of this castle was a beautiful princess…Zelda…who was in trouble. But what kind of trouble? How did he know her?

He was distracted by the town he walked in. While moments before, the town had been a lively center of trade and music, all activity had stopped while the citizens awaited some terrible fate.

The twilight came sweeping over them like a blanket. Each person in its wake transformed into a mere shadow of their spirit, a glowing blue light…they did nothing but wait and submit!

The Nobody panicked and ran. He would not let what was left of his being be ripped from him.

All of a sudden, a portal of darkness appeared. The Nobody wasn't scared, though he would have been, had he remembered the entrance of Zant. From this portal stepped a man with a brown ponytail, a missing eye, and the strangest black cloak.

"Dude," he said, "what is up with this place? This looks just awful. Yuck."

"Who…" the Nobody muttered, "who are you?"

"Name's Xigbar," said the stranger. "'Sup?"

"The town is disappearing…" the Nobody begged, "save me…"

"Oh, no problem. I was coming to get you anyway."

"You were coming…for me?"

"Just come on. I'll explain when we get there."

The Nobody followed Xigbar into the darkness.

From a distance, a shadow beast watched its other half leave the world.


End file.
